To observe, to be enchanted, and to enjoy the simple stuff in life, is truly a delight.

DISTRACTED BY LIFE

As it was an overcast but still very nice day, I decided to do some work in our own garden. I cleared one raised bed ready for growing some plants, but I am delighted with what is growing there already, there are plenty of herbs, such as rosemary, lemon balm, lavender, evening primrose, oca, oregano (two types), and of all things some Jerusalem artichokes have come up too. So I just took out some grass and some other stuff that was smothering those plants. Ian decided to come and work with me, so he cleared the path on his knees with a small little knife, no easy task to be sure. Now and then we took a rest, either for tea or chat, or to admire the creatures flying or crawling around. Meanwhile I took a few shots of them.

These are three wild plants that I am keeping my eye on very closely, number one is a huge thistle, it is almost in flower, I know that the seeds are what the gold finch feed on and that is why I want to keep it, to attract these birds and see how it goes. The second one is our comfrey plant, it’s flourishing and what I am watching is the amount of insects that are using it, most of what I see are the bumblebees and I would love to see some honey bees on the comfrey too, of course. The third plant is two years old, I grew it as a salad plant but it was so beautiful that I did not want to eat it, so I let it grow, and when we returned from Gozo it was so large and I recognised it as a plant you see a lot around here in the wild, a type of sorrel perhaps. These three are on my watch list.

And this is a view of our garden, we have had the pleasure to sit under the hawthorn tree all week for our meals, in the dappled sunlight with the garden scents all around us and the birds singing, what a perfect summer weather, aware that for people in other lands, not as lucky just then because of rains and floods.

oh, how I love hawthorns! we were just hit with a hail storm…twenty minutes of hail the size of ice cubes…the entire yard, trees, gardens were stripped bare…all the iris, poppies, carnations, vinca, daylilies… gone, shredded…I watched it happen with a horrible fascination… it even shredded the cushion on the chaise lounge, and ripped the sun-umbrella…sigh… but I know, as we all know, that the garden and trees will come back with a vengeance…and it will be glorious to see…

Thank you for sharing this simple and wonderful snap shot of your life, Agnes. Comfrey and Thistle are two of my favorite plants . . . I had forgotten about the relationship between thistle and the goldfinch.